A senior bishop in northern Iraq has called for Western military intervention to be stepped up to defeat the Islamic State terrorists who have forced thousands of Christians to flee their homes and villages.
Bashar Warda, the Chaldean Archbishop of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, told the BBC: It’s strange for a Catholic bishop to say, ‘We need more force’, but it’s self defence really.”
Archbishop Warda, who was highly critical of the US-led invasion of his country in 2003, told the BBC: “I could see that my people are really dying. It’s terrifying, it’s painful; we have to defend ourselves.”
Some 120,000 Christians have fled their homes in Mosul and the Nineveh Plains since June, along with Yazidis also threatened with death by the jihadists. In a separate interview he described the crisis as “a genocide”. Christians who have reached Erbil and the nearby Dohuk region, often with only the clothes on their back, are becoming increasingly desperate.
The archbishop also accused the Government in Baghdad of failing to pass on international aid destined for Christians and Yazidis.
He also said: “The government in Baghdad received a lot of help from the international community for the displaced people from Mosul and Nineveh but there has been no sign of it here.”
He said the Baghdad was helping Muslims who have fled, but not the 120,000 Christians seeking sanctuary away from areas terrorised by the extremists.
He told the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need: “The reality is that Christians have received no support from the central government. They have done nothing for them, absolutely nothing.”
“Usually, the central government is the first to take responsibility for helping people forced to leave their homes,” he went on. “It has not fulfilled its commitment to the people.”
The archbishop said the Kurdish Regional Government in Erbil had made it clear from the start of the crisis that it could offer no financial assistance because from 1 January 2014 it had stopped receiving subsidies from Baghdad.
He also said that Muslim leaders in Iraq had failed to give an unequivocal condemnation of the violence carried out in the name of Islam, and there had been instances of Muslims looting the homes of their long-time Christians neighbours.
Archbishop Warda said many of his faithful felt “betrayed” and were now more likely to emigrate.
Archbishop Warda, who alongside other bishops has coordinated a relief programme of food and emergency housing for the displaced people, said the task of aiding Christians had fallen almost exclusively to the Church.
Aid to the Church in Need is providing emergency food, accommodation and other basic help for displaced Christians.
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